This morning we were contacted by a person from another area of the state to say that a person calling himself Williams Alfred wanted to purchase a car that they had not seen and needed her paypal details to do so.

The Internet coming up to Christmas is a high time for scammers to be active. This person advertised on Gumtree. This has happened before with a fictitious advertisement for a job in the area which people fell for and paid money. This is a serious way to get money and take identity from people. This guy has even give a drivers license number although it has no letter on the end a sure sign that it is fake. Below is the email the person received. Please be alert and aware coming up to Christmas for these online scammers, mostly from overseas.

Hello,Williams Alfred ..My address is 69 Boolcarrol Rd wee waa nsw 2388,My license no is 12944704..With the issue of my details,transferring the name of ownership and signing of all paperwork will be done by the pick up agent so you don't have to worry about that.,as soon as you send me your PayPal email i will make the payment and you will be notify in your email that the payment have been made.Very easy.For example my PayPal email is williamsalfred7@outlook.com Send me your PayPal email now so i can pay in

ANTI-coal seam gas activists have followed up on their promise to continue disrupting Santos activities in the Pilliga forest by staging a road blockade at the gates of the energy company’s Leewood wastewater treatment yesterday morning.

About 20 people prevented contractors from entering the site for two and a half hours.

Construction started at the site last week, despite the facility being at the centre of a court battle over the legality of its approval.

Wilalla farmer Alistair Donaldson took part in the protest and said he was “deeply concerned” construction was under way before the outcomes of the court case were determined. “If I was in court about the legality of the development application for my house, do you think I’d be allowed to keep building before the case was determined?” Mr Donaldson said.

“If the court finds that Leewood has not been properly assessed, Santos will have to go back to the drawing board in the assessment process and all the work currently under way will have been completed without valid approval.

“There’s double standards at play here and Santos should be required to press pause at least until it’s clear its approval is legal.”

Santos general manager of energy NSW, Peter Mitchley, said the protest activity at Leewood had no impact on Santos operations and the company had all approvals in place to undertake the work.

“The Leewood Phase 2 Project was approved following a rigorous and detailed assessment process which was carried out in accordance with the relevant regulatory guidelines.

By ALEX DRUCE The Land

DROUGHT-ravaged farmers say a new government website will give little comfort to communities devastated by worsening conditions.

Last week Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair trumpeted the arrival of the DroughtHub information portal and NSW Drought Framework flowchart as a one-stop destination for farmers to access drought support and information.

But Walgett Shire Council deputy mayor Jane Keir said the new internet resource was of little use to locals who were struggling to get back on their feet.

“The last thing (farmers) need, working on their own out on the farm, is to look at a nice fuzzy website,” Cr Keir said.

Cr Keir called for the government to commit to interest-free loans instead.

“We don’t want any handouts,” Cr Keir said.

“We just want interest-free loans we can have a while to pay back. And we don’t want to have to be acrobats to get it.”

Paddocks between Walgett and Bourke are cracked and barren and communities are struggling after four years of horrendous conditions.

10.00am-11.00am Eastern Summer Time, Thursday 17 December 2015

In April 2015 the National Mental Health Commission released its National Review of Mental Health Programmes and Services. The review provided

"a strong, achievable and practical plan for modernising and reforming Australia’s mental health system and ultimately improving the lives of millions of Australians".

Last month the Australian Government responded to the Review stating it aimed "to transform Commonwealth mental health funding and leadership over the next three years to achieve a more efficient, integrated and sustainable mental health system and to improve mental health service delivery for Australians".What will the changes mean for mental health services and their clients in rural and remote areas?

Winner Again.

Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events Stuart Ayres announced today that Boggabri Drovers’ Campfire will receive NSW Government funding under the 2016 Regional Flagship Events Program, which aims to increase visitation to the fabulous festivals of regional NSW.

The Drovers’ Campfire event plays an important role in Boggabri’s economy, helping to attract people to the beautiful area and also showcasing what is unique about our region.

In 2015 over 2,200 people attended the event, which has grown considerably since being established in 2006.

Sara Ciesiolka Opinion piece in The Guardian today

Farmers and traditional land owners are petitioning the Coag meeting of mining and energy ministers to control their livelihood, and their land

As a large scale food producer on the extremely valuable and productive lands just downstream from the largest of the State’s proposed gas hotspots at Narrabri, I live daily with the knowledge, and the stress, that ultimately we are powerless to refuse access for coal seam gas extraction on our land.

This is land that we have successfully toiled over for generations to build into a sustainable and productive enterprise capable of feeding hungry mouths both at home and abroad.

For our city cousins, it’s like someone knocking on your front door, demanding to be let inside, and taking up residence in your living room and making a mess. Sometimes they don’t even bother to knock.

The balance of power is skewed heavily in favour of the coal seam gas companies, who have all the rights, against individual landholders, who have nothing but risk.

On Friday there is a meeting of Council of Australian Governments (Coag) mining and energy ministers, and federal energy minister Josh Frydenberg has promised landholders that the issue of a farmer’s right to say ‘no’ will be on the agenda.

Seventy-nine farmers, landholders and traditional owners, including myself, from every state and territory across Australia have sent a letter to minister Frydenberg and the state ministers, calling on them to grant us this right.

The signatories include beef graziers, wine-makers, and landholders struggling in the centre of the Queensland gasfields, the coalfields of the Hunter Valley, and traditional owners from the Kimberley, the Northern Territory and New South Wales.